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Thursday, September 29, 2016

Beaked whales and dolphins make a splash

It's been another great day out on the ocean. We started the morning tour with a rare encounter: beaked whales! Beaked whales are always rewarding if you see them well, as they are usually very shy and elusive and therefore difficult to watch. They typically only spend about 8% of their lives at the surface and can dive to almost 3000 metres deep. Today we were lucky that they were staying close to the surface, travelling fast making huge plashes as if they were in a hurry. When our first boat arrived it was a mixed group of Blainville's beaked whales and Sowerby's beaked whales, but the Blainville's beaked whales quicly left, leaving us all with a nice group of Sowerby's beaked whales. As they came high out of the water we could really see their long beaks that gave them their name. As for the dolphins, we had plenty to see throughout the day. In the morning we encountered a group of bottlenose dolphins close to shore, and in the afternoon we first encountered a big group of about 200 Atlantic spotted dolphins, and later a smaller group of bottlenose dolphins that included an individual we know well and call "Submarino". Lets see what surprises are out there for us tomorrow...

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Welcome

Futurismo has 25 years of experience whale watching and swimming with dolphins in the Azores. We operate tours from São Miguel Island on a year-round basis.

The Azores islands are famous for being one of the world's whale watching hotspots. Here we can see at least 27 species of whales and dolphins, the most noteable being the resident sperm whale. Discover the secrets of the Azores with us, both out on the ocean and on land.

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